Isis Camp Near El Paso, Tx is not New News

Today, Judicial Watch reported that it had confirmed that ISIS has a training camp just on the other side of the border from El Paso, TX:

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector.

While the news is important, it’s not new. Here’s a Fox News report from September, 2014 that seems to mention the same thing (information starts at 2:44).

Some are downplaying the reports today as old news – but it’s not the reporting of the camp that is key – it’s the fact that Judicial Watch found independent confirmation of the camp’s existence.

The report does vaguely detail a joint U.S. – Mexico operation on the camp:

During the course of a joint operation last week, Mexican Army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as “plans” of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the US Army’s 1^st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation.

The finding of items, but no talk of anyone being detained would seem to leave only two possibilities: either the ISIS folks were gone when the operation hit, or they’ve been dealt with in-secret by the governments of the United States and Mexico.

Rendition, catch-and-release or a missed opportunity?

Judicial Watch has also noted that the FBI put together some meetings to try and deal with the leak that broke the ISIS camp story. Some key folks seem to be missing:

A high-level intelligence source, who must remain anonymous for safety reasons, confirmed that the meeting was convened specifically to address a press strategy to deny Judicial Watch’s accurate reporting and identify who is providing information to JW. FBI supervisory personnel met with Mexican Army officers and Mexican Federal Police officials, according to JW’s intelligence source. The FBI liaison officers regularly assigned to Mexico were not present at the meeting and conspicuously absent were representatives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It’s not clear why DHS did not participate.